Michael Phelps

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT MICHAEL PHELPS - PAGE 4

"Imagine you see a person at work taking buckets of water from the deep end of a swimming pool and dumping them into the shallow end, in an attempt to make it deeper. You would deem him stupid. That scenario is equivalent to what Congress and the new president proposes for the economy. " - Shepherdstown, W.Va. "I just love to watch the mayor and council on Channel 6 on Tuesday night. It's almost like a circus, and there's no charge. This past Tuesday, one of the council people spoke up 15 times about getting out-of-work people in Hagerstown jobs.

The Federal Little League 11-12 All-Stars returned to Hagerstown on Thursday evening, their bus escorted by police to North Hagerstown High School's Mike Callas Stadium, where the players and coaches were warmly greeted by a couple hundred friends and family members. It was the culmination of a three-week trip that took Federal to the Mid-Atlantic Regional tournament in Bristol, Conn., and the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. "It's a beautiful day, and that magic carpet ride, this is a wonderful conclusion to it," Federal manager Bill Abeles Jr. said.

Four West Virginia racetracks will use a percentage of their video lottery revenues toward paying off a state debt following a special legislative session called by Gov. Joe Manchin. The bottom line: Purses will be reduced at Charles Town Races & Slots - probably starting July 1. "The horsemen here at Charles Town get 14 percent of the revenue generated by the video lottery," said Don Combs, Executive Director of the Charles Town Division/Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.

BEIJING (AP) -- Head on over to the futuristic-looking Water Cube and wriggle into your high-tech suit Michael Phelps, it's time to hit the pool. Swimming is perhaps the most highly anticipated sport at the Beijing Games, beginning Saturday night with preliminaries in six events. Yes, that's right, swimmers will qualify in the evening and swim finals in the morning, a change from the traditional Olympic format made to accommodate U.S. television audiences who'll be watching in primetime.

The Federal Little League team is a cunning bunch. You wouldn't know it by looking at them, but there is more to that team than what meets the eye. On the surface, the players are a dozen preteens -- or tweens, or whatever they are called nowadays -- just out there playing baseball. And doing it very well for that matter. In case you have been locked in a dugout or a County Commissioners' budget dispute meeting, Federal's amazing run that put Hagerstown in the Little League World Series for the first time in four decades came to an end on Tuesday.

BEIJING (AP) -- With help from British star power, China concluded its debut as Olympic host Sunday after 16 days of near-flawless logistics and superlative athletic achievement -- coexisting awkwardly with the government's wariness of dissent and free speech. A spectacular closing ceremony opened with torrents of fireworks and included a pulsating show-within-a-show by London, host of the 2012 Games. From a stage formed from a red double-decker bus, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page played classic rock hit "Whole Lotta Love" and soccer icon David Beckham booted a ball into the surrounding throng of athletes on the stadium floor.

o If you like reading Tim Rowland, you'll love watching him. See what else Tim has to say Editor's note: This column was published in The Herald-Mail newspaper on Aug. 9, 2009: A relatively famous chap once said, "Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. I get most joy in life out of music. " But no one remembers Albert Einstein for his music. Of course some didn't know him for his physics either.

The inability to sit still was a defining characteristic of Phillip Urbak's childhood. While classmates would quietly sit at their desks, Urbak was a squirmer. He made good grades, he recalled, and often was on the honor roll. But he was easily distracted and had trouble with time management. Those patterns continued into college, where he would procrastinate and then pull all-nighters to study for an exam. He missed out on an internship one year because he forgot to show up for an interview.

Something was missing from this Olympics, but for the longest time I couldn't figure out what it was. As sporting events go, they seemed somewhat antiseptic, like some staple of recreational activity had been surgically removed from the set. Some background noise, some sporting clutter was gone. A week into it, I figured out what was leaving me with that empty feeling: Advertising. I'm just not sure I can fully appreciate an athletic contest without a Mastercard logo superimposed on the playing field.